By BILL FOLEY
Logan Schuchart has had his share of bad luck, but that wasn’t the case as the Craftsman Tools World of Outlaws Sprint car season commenced on Friday night at Volusia Speedway Park.
The Pennsylvania based driver joined by his cousin Jacob Allen and grandfather Bobby “Scruffy” Allen turned a few heads as the new year began.
Logan turned fast time, but it didn’t come in the normal way.
He went out for his scheduled trial and was fast, very fast. However, the transponder on his car failed to communicate the information and he headed to the infield to get a new one.
Later he said, “It was a fast one. It certainly felt very good.”
However, that lap didn’t register so a few cars later he went out and did it all over again to grab fast time with a 12.975 lap or an average speed of 117.917 mph.
Relaxing outside his hauler after the successful run he said, “I didn’t have a quick time last year and this is a good way to get it going. That first lap felt really good, but it just didn’t register.”
This year the team is looking forward to making a step up in the World of Outlaws competition.
Logan noted, “Priority Aviation and Ausherman Properties have come on board along with our other long time friends and sponsors and it will help.”
Shark Racing is one of the blue collar teams on the rugged tour and last year there were some motor problems, but Schuchart explained that things weren’t as they appeared.
Logan said, “We had good engines, but we just ran them longer than we should have. We had major hauler problems last year and that took a lot of our attention. The engine thing was our own fault. We will stay on top of it this year.”
While some teams came to Florida to get an early start, Shark Racing remained at home.
The team is focused simply on the Outlaw tour and the reputation of Volusia impacted decisions just a little bit.
Logan explained, “We really didn’t want to risk hurting engines here. This is a big track, at sea level and you run wide open. There is a fine line between running well and burning up your engine.”
In regards to the first night fast time he noted, “Well it will be good starting up front.”
That fast time achievement saw him on pole for the first heat race where he ran away from Ian Madsen. The luck of the draw was sort of with him as he drew and finished third in the dash before a disappointing 11th place in the feature event.
However, the season is underway and already Logan Schuchart has a quick time. He hopes more will follow, but also hopes top feature finished work their way into the equation.
